Interesting string of observations you inspired. I'll say one thing - whoever restored the distributor, or whatever they did to it, did a pretty darn good job of whatever they did - it's pretty close in all the details, enough to lead you to believe it is genuine. The worst problem I see with it, outside of any of the details we have discussed, is it's just too darn nice and shiny for most people to believe it. Maybe the actual measurements will clue us to a proper decision about it's authenticity.

As a result of this discussion, I don't think I'm going to do anything to my string of distributors (499,467, and 480's) other than a good cleaning and reassembly. I was considering sending them to Jerry, but now I'm worried about the end result of re-skinning being "too" good in appearance.

Let us know what the thing measures at, and hopefully we're done with controversy.

My take on this is what is obvious. If the body was turned on a lathe just to get the original numbers off it would be smaller in diameter. As deep as those numbers are stamped, a lot has to be removed. That is one flag. If it was offset turned, the rotor would hit the inside of the cap as it went around to all the contacts on one side, another flag. I would just get the dimensions and compare the hell out it and a normal untouched piece or like I said, some sort of template That would settle all kinds of things.

Yeah, whoever rebuilt and/or restored that 499 over did it and I agree with you Steve to leave well enough alone. With the way the high rollers restore these cars and the money they drop in them, sooner or later somebody is going to realize that somebody created a too perfect a car. How do you know what somebody put in it in money is even real. As imperfect as they were in the beginning, they need to stay that way when they get rebuilt.

OK, finally got the micrometer and here are the results of the two distributors. One is the 1969 (396/375) 1111499 and the other is the 1969 (350/250) 1111487. I did my very best to ensure that each time I measured I zeroed out and tried to measure is the same areas on both distributors. No BS here. What you see is what I see. They look pretty close to me. I think the difference could be the cleaning off of the crud and oxidation. What do you think?

If I interpreted your values correctly, the difference seems to be about 0.020" (20 thousandths) between the known untampered with 487 and the suspect 499 in the area of the stamped numbers? I think that is MORE than 'crud/dirt'.. and probably is sufficient to remove the original numbers...

Hey Al. We must have been typing this at the same time. It seems to me your 499 is untouch in that regard. Not sure what else anyone would need against that visual. I would think at this point the question would be how did it get so clean.

I really don't know much about micrometers but on the body it is the difference between 3.815 (know original) and 3.813 my 1111499. That would be a difference of .002

The cap area is 3.800 (known original) and 3.797 my 1111499. That would be a difference of .003

That seems like an incredibly close measurement to me. Could this small amount be evidence that the distributor has been turned down?

Al

The numbers stamped into the body are deeper than 0.003".. Ill be the first to admit I was wrong and it looks like the data doesnt lie. This just goes to show that the some of these are very hard to decide if they are real or bogus. Congrats on having a real one and I would feel confident in buying it if I was looking for one. Also that couple of thou difference could have been from the polishing..

I do understand the question relating to the offset cutting of the body only. Hopefully to put that to rest, here is another photo of my 1111499 with one of the caliper fingers directly on the stamping. Almost identical at 3.8125.

I feel very satisfied now, thanks to everyone's help on this forum, that I can now relist the distributor and call it an "original 1111499 and not a re-stamp"

I'd also like to thank cook dw for being the first to call it "original."

Even at 63, I still love learning about anything related to muscle cars.

I did ask the previous owner who restored the distributor and here is what he said:

"This distributor came with a 69 Chevelle I bought. The owner said he was going to make it an L78 car. He said that a local speed shop in Mount Laurel, NJ cleaned it up and it is ready to go. New points, condenser, rotor and cap."